kofeiiniturpa;n9998321 said:The original idea was to increase the voluntary interactivity of the city (if there's story to be had, it comes from what you do and how that results), not to hamfist in text quests. Just to clarify.
Aye. And making it a one-time quest would be far too limiting, in my opinion.
That said, I'm also fine with the idea of a companion app or something of that sort. That would be very, very cool, and it'd be something I'd actually use (unlike every other companion app on the planet) - but, while another solution if presentation is a huge problem, I don't think it is a problem to begin with.
As kofeiiniturpa noted, movies (Even "interactive" theatre type movies, though I've never seen those before) are very, very different than games. With a movie, you are essentially watching one of those "Assassin's Creed: The Movie" type of YouTube clip mash-ups where the creator pushes all the cutscenes together.
Movies, for the most part, are not interactive. People sign on to watch a movie because it isn't interactive. There's a story that wants to be told, and they want to be told that story. A video game -- at least, an open world RPG with sandbox elements -- is quite different. The player does not have to interact with this mechanic at all if they don't want to, whereas in a movie, everybody must be subjected to whatever is being displayed on the screen - unless they get up and leave, of course.
I get your overall point, and I concede that it could be confusing for players at first (at least, if CDPR were bad designers and couldn't think of any way to make it work, which I doubt), but after the first time, you instantly catch on.
Wasn't there at least one mechanic in any major RPG that had you wondering "Wait...what?", but after encountering it/using it a few times, you got the hang of it? This is basically the same deal.
And ultimately, it's the concept that I like, not necessarily the implementation of using it for apartments. I see the value in doing it that way (gives people more to interact with on the street, and makes apartments feel less lifeless) but I'm not married to it.
Honestly, you could just have street terminals that any player can jack into. Perhaps the player has to have a certain augmentation to use them? That would be the perfect way to handle it. Add a (small) barrier to entry, so that only players who want to take part in it can take part in it. The mechanic can be pre-explained during the tutorial, or the first time players walk up to one. A dialogue box pops up on the screen and shows an image of the mini-game, along with a text explanation of what these terminals are and how you interact with them.
SigilFey Thoughts?